Lecturer urges small businesses to build their financial capacity

Sunyani, Mr Isaac Tweneboah-Koduah, a lecturer at the Garden City University, has advised business entrepreneurs to endeavour to build the financial and managerial capacity of their workers.

He said that would enable them to easily access loans from banks and micro-credit institutions.

He said research showed that financial institutions in the country are unwilling to give loans to small businesses because many entrepreneurs and their workers lacked basic knowledge in financial management.

Mr Tweneboah-Koduah, who is a business consultant and marketing entrepreneur, gave the advice at the opening session of a business plan competition training for 328 small businesses selected from the various districts and Municipalities in the Brong-Ahafo region.

The businesses were among the 7,000 businesses being trained nationwide by the National Entrepreneurship and Innovative Plan (NEIP), under the Ministry of Business Development.

Last year President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo launched the NEIP with a seed capital of US$10 million which is expected to be scaled up to US$100 million through private sector implementation partner (PSIP).

NEIP is a multi-pronged approach aimed at creating the conducive and business-friendly environment to stimulate enterprise activities and provide integrated national support for start-ups and small businesses that would in turn generate employment for the teeming youth in the country.

Mr Tweneboah-Koduah noted that many small businesses in the country were collapsing because entrepreneurs lacked training that could provide realistic business plans and proposals to access funding and grants.

He said a good market research – target audience, market sizing, pricing strategy, competitive analysis, and value preposition-remained catalysts for business growth and development.

Mrs Statsy Offei-Darko, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NEIP, said her outfit had enough funding to support small businesses and advised young people to come out with creative ideas, develop their business plans and access start-up capital.

Throwing more light on the business competition, Mr Yaw Asamoah, the CEO of Africa SME Organisation, private sector implementing partner of NEIP, said the 7,000 selected businesses would be charged to provide five-page business plan concept note with focus on market research and strategy.

He said 2,000 of the small businesses would be shortlisted to provide 20-page full business plan draft adding that 500 of them which excel would be trained and provided with loans to start or expand their economic activities.